This article introduces the special issue and identifies three key contributions. First, R2P advocates are right to mark the progress that has been made, but that should notand generally does notlead norm diffusers to rest on their laurels or to fall into a complacency that sees moral progress as inevitable. Second, the burden of concrete protection practiceswhether they be reflected in contributions to peacekeeping missions or the granting of asylum is being unfairly distributed across

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... ional society. This hierarchy is potentially destabilising and it demands that the great powersor those laying claim to that identityrecognise their 'special responsibility to protect'. Third, the great powers do have an important responsibility to reconcile the demands of human protection and international peace and security. It is difficult to reconcile these if we look narrowly at the former in terms of intervention, especially military intervention. Reiterating R2P to remind states that other prudent options are availablesuch as receiving refugees -is an important step, especially in the current context. Keywords Norms, moral progress, special responsibilities, hierarchy 2015 marks the 70th anniversary of the United Nations and the 10th anniversary of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) agreement as set out in paragraphs 138, 139, and 140 of the World Summit Outcome Document. As one cannot detach the latter from the former, let us revisit the world of the 1940s. In 1946, the Director of the Human Rights Division in the UN Secretariat, John P. Humphrey, sent an interoffice memorandum to Henri Laugier; 1 University of Leeds, A.Gallagher@leeds.ac.uk. 2 Universities of Leeds and Queensland, J.G.Ralph@leeds.ac.uk. This special issue has emerged from a 3 year seminar series funded by the Economic and Social Research Council grant ES/L00075X/1. It has been convened by the authors with the support of Aidan Hehir (University of Westminster) and James Pattison (University of Manchester). We also wish to acknowledge the support of the International Studies Association, which awarded us (together with Phil Orchard from the University of Queensland) a one-day workshop grant at the New Orleans 2015 annual conference. We would like to thank the participants of that workshop for their insights, contributions and recommendations.